Now Playing (Video Games)

Got started on Aliens: Dark Descent and it’s pretty cool, though my team got half slaughtered at the end of what appears to be the main tutorial mission. The real-time tactics take on the IP is an interesting one, with you directly controlling the entire squad as a single entity, but making some RTS-like decisions as you go, and having a very light XCOM-ish meta game for your base between missions.

Another sale dangling in front of me, with things like Pentiment for $12 and Chants Of Sennaar for $14. I may need to institute a 50%-or-greater discount cutoff for myself until my backlog is back under control…
 
JudasMyGuide said:
@Onhell
In Alan Wake I'm in the third chapter and... the bad first - it is a game that obviously tries to milk the horror atmosphere and it completely leaves me cold...
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A friend of mine and I recently had a conversation about how horror and comedy are "sister genres," because if done wrong, horror can be unintentionally funny. That, and what is scary for one person can be hilarious for another. A good example is the "It" miniseries from the 90s. Joseph Anderson made a video a few years back on how Soma isn't scary and he got A LOT of shit for it, but he makes a good point. He argued the reason it stopped being scary was the repetitiveness of scares, level design or just dying and doing it again and how the player gets used to it. TBH can't remember if it was him or another Youtuber, but point still stands.

That being said, I don't think Alan Wake was ever meant to be scary, just creepy and well... funny. In the sequel I actually don't like how the ONLY thing the shadows say is, "Wake!" or "Alan Wake!" Though it is more horror.

On a personal note, I LOVE horror, my favorite game and movie genre, but since I've been watching horror since I was 5 or so, I'm very much dulled to most of it and few movies or games legitimately scare me. I think the most recent one was Little Nightmares 2 and that's because it tapped into several major childhood fears, plus mannequins are always creepy.

Meliegree said:
Trying to push through Alien Isolation. I love alien movies (because they are not so scary + have great visuals etc.) but I don't have balls to go through horror games anymore. So probably I will go quietly back to Hades since I didn't finished it. After that I probably will finish splinter cell conviction. I love stealth games.
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THIS game is the other one where I was practically crapping my pants all the way through. Lol.

This past weekend said friend and I played Gone Home, What Remains of Edith Finch and Don't Knock Twice. He wants to make a horror NES game (he has a dev kit), a la Sweet Home/Resident Evil and recruited me as a co-writer. I told him we should play these as "research" for environmental storytelling, level design, etc. While there is no enemy in Gone Home and What Remains of Edith Finch, there is something inherently creepy about exploring an empty house. Don't Knock Twice however had us on the edge of our seats with it's jump scares and evolving décor. For example we'd open a door and catch a glimpse of Baba Yaga turning the corner, We're looking outside a window, lightning flashes and you see on the wall, "She's mine!" or random scratching, piano playing, etc. For such a low budget indie game it's effective in it's scares.
 
Gave TopSpin 2K25 a whirl, and it’s a lot more simmy than previous tennis games I’ve played, which would be fine if it weren’t for having to nail the variable shot timing on every hit in order to remain competitive. I just can’t get the hang of the timing no matter what I do, so I can’t outperform my opponents. Kinda sucks, because the game seems really strong otherwise.

Haven’t really spent much other time on console or Steam Deck gaming lately, though I probably should…
 
Yesterday I finished Shadow of the Erdtree, which means my solo STR (re-)run of all the from games I posses is finished.

It was a blast, I honestly love Elden Ring the most (I have written more on why here) and I absolutely loved the DLC. As for the difficulty, I don't know, most bosses didn't took more than 10 attempts, many not even 5, I found them very cool visually, very fun gameplay-wise and in fact, easier than possibly the tail end of the base game. And I'm like, casual, I'm a father of three that steals some moments to play here and there. The final boss was, of coure, very hard, but much easier than Malenia, my ranking of the difficulty of the bosses according to how long I was stuck on them the first time would be:

1. Owl (Father) (Sekiro) - nothing comes close
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2. Nameless King (DS 3)
3. Malenia (Elden Ring)
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4. Promised Consort (Elden Ring DLC)
5. Sister Friede (DS 3 DLC)
6. Slave Knight Gael (DS 3 DLC) / Orphan of Kos (Bloodborne)


The from games I played from my favourite to my least favourite:

1. Elden Ring
2. BloodBorne
3. Dark Souls 2
4. Dark Souls 3
5. Sekiro (amazing the first and second time around, but after three or four replays I don't enjoy it all that much anymore)
6. Dark Souls 1 (this was my first one and I actually had it as my favourite for the longest time).


I want to do a replay of all ASAP, I want to check all the NPC questlines and all (I also finally bought DS 2 for Xbox), but first I want to go through the Remedyverse and my Witcher 3 replay and this video kinda made me want to replay the Elder Scrolls from Morrowind onwards. (as the video is shorter, it is probably much more patalable than the admittedly superior NeverKnowsBest series about Elder Scrolls, I guess).
 
I've taken a break from Alan Wake II since the start of the semester. I got pretty far, I reached the point of no return with the Saga part of the story, so now I'm going to switch realities and do the same for the Wake part of the story. But it's been a couple of weeks and don't really know when exactly I'll get back to it. It's weird, I like the game, but I don't feel compelled to keep playing it. I will finish it eventually, but it hasn't captured me the way the original or Control did where I had to keep playing to see what happens next. I've replayed the original 4 times and love it every single time.... I don't see myself replaying this one after I'm done.

I did, however, get sucked in into Octopath Traveler. This is a gorgeous "HD 2D" JRPG from 2018. You pick a starting character, you can recruit the other 7 characters or you can go solo (there is an achievement for that). The stories kind of intersect, but not really. What I love is the artwork, the music, the gameplay is fun and engaging and more than anything, it's manageable. I don't feel lost or overwhelmed. I think playing Sea of Stars helped with that. If this was my first RPG I wouldn't be as enthused. But as it stands, I'm really liking it and I'm definitely playing the sequel when done.

Haven't gotten back to Dark Void or Golden Eye and I'm 11 achievements away from 100% in Vampire Survivors. I've been waiting for my brother for those since we play it to relax after kicking each other's ass in NHL18
 
Onhell said:
I've taken a break from Alan Wake II since the start of the semester. I got pretty far, I reached the point of no return with the Saga part of the story, so now I'm going to switch realities and do the same for the Wake part of the story. But it's been a couple of weeks and don't really know when exactly I'll get back to it. It's weird, I like the game, but I don't feel compelled to keep playing it. I will finish it eventually, but it hasn't captured me the way the original or Control did where I had to keep playing to see what happens next. I've replayed the original 4 times and love it every single time.... I don't see myself replaying this one after I'm done.
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Heh, I'm nearing the end of 1 (currently in the second DLC episode) and this is more or less how I feel about it, lol. I mean, the game has a good presentation, the gameplay loop isn't the worst and overall it's a rather smooth and polished experience. Generally, it's rather pleasant.

However, I find the story and the progress kinda uninspired (the DLCs are much better, I was hoping the entire game would be like that, not just the optional episodes) and the general "gamification of the narrative" (meaning "go to X" -> oh no, the bridge collapsed -> detour -> repeat ad nauseam) gets really tedious after a while. The overall progression makes me wish for something like Alien: Isolation, which was three times as long and yet felt half as long subjectively, because the way it kept changing and diversifying the experience. And I don't really go out of my way to collect the collectibles (though I've accumulated quite a few), but I can't help it, it kinda annoys me anyway, just the fact it's present. :D

Like I said, I like the game, but I'm glad it was on sale, I feel like it's really something that Game Pass was created for, at least for me. Maybe I'm not the intended audience. We'll see how I'll feel about replaying Control and then finally the sequel.

I also find it to be a bit of a weird choice to have both DLCs much harder than the base game, especially with how the gameplay is a tad monotonous and not really user-friendly already (IMHO) AND with how it changes certain aspects and sometimes even your entire approach (finite numbers of Taken in the base game vs. infinite respawns in at least some places in the DLC). And hey, I'm a from soft fan and I'm currently really enjoying Wither 3 on the Death March difficulty, so it's not really the difficulty as such, more the way it's implemented.
 
JudasMyGuide said:
Heh, I'm nearing the end of 1 (currently in the second DLC episode) and this is more or less how I feel about it, lol. I mean, the game has a good presentation, the gameplay loop isn't the worst and overall it's a rather smooth and polished experience. Generally, it's rather pleasant.

However, I find the story and the progress kinda uninspired (the DLCs are much better, I was hoping the entire game would be like that, not just the optional episodes) and the general "gamification of the narrative" (meaning "go to X" -> oh no, the bridge collapsed -> detour -> repeat ad nauseam) gets really tedious after a while. The overall progression makes me wish for something like Alien: Isolation, which was three times as long and yet felt half as long subjectively, because the way it kept changing and diversifying the experience. And I don't really go out of my way to collect the collectibles (though I've accumulated quite a few), but I can't help it, it kinda annoys me anyway, just the fact it's present. :D

Like I said, I like the game, but I'm glad it was on sale, I feel like it's really something that Game Pass was created for, at least for me. Maybe I'm not the intended audience. We'll see how I'll feel about replaying Control and then finally the sequel.

I also find it to be a bit of a weird choice to have both DLCs much harder than the base game, especially with how the gameplay is a tad monotonous and not really user-friendly already (IMHO) AND with how it changes certain aspects and sometimes even your entire approach (finite numbers of Taken in the base game vs. infinite respawns in at least some places in the DLC). And hey, I'm a from soft fan and I'm currently really enjoying Wither 3 on the Death March difficulty, so it's not really the difficulty as such, more the way it's implemented.
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In that case you might like the second one, much more of a survival horror feel to it, jump scares, less enemies yet much tougher to take down. You have to prepare for most encounters, unlike in the first one where it's "shine flashlight, shoot them 'til they drop." Here, even after shinning the flashlight at them, it doesn't mean they'll go down easy after that. Some will charge at you while you're shooting them making you move, dodge, etc. My advice though? Wait for it to be on sale as well, makes less than ideal experiences go down easier lol. Like you said, there's been many a game I played and thought, "Well, at least it was on Gamepass" or "Well, at least I got it on sale."
 
Onhell said:
In that case you might like the second one, much more of a survival horror feel to it, jump scares, less enemies yet much tougher to take down. You have to prepare for most encounters, unlike in the first one where it's "shine flashlight, shoot them 'til they drop." Here, even after shinning the flashlight at them, it doesn't mean they'll go down easy after that. Some will charge at you while you're shooting them making you move, dodge, etc. My advice though? Wait for it to be on sale as well, makes less than ideal experiences go down easier lol. Like you said, there's been many a game I played and thought, "Well, at least it was on Gamepass" or "Well, at least I got it on sale."
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Thanks, I already bought it along with 1, since they were both on sale and the critical acclaim from both the reviewers and the word of mouth kinda got to me. I actually kinda bought it instead of Baldur's Gate 3, because

- that one won't be on sale anytime soon
- my plan to re-play 1 and 2 beforehand (I know you don't have to) isn't going all that well
- in the meantime, I just started to get somewhat... annoyed by tbe fandom? The memes? Dunno, I guess I'm weird, but I'm kinda disinclined to pick it up right now.
- I don't like turn-based combat much, I feel it ruins the immersion


Also, I wanted to say - as someone who replayed both Max Payne 1 and 2, like, 30 times (still love the games and I'd like to replay them again now, in fact), I really love the little call-backs, the sound of the barred door, "Mirra was here", the feel of the nightmares (though the ones in MP were actually much creepier), the Poets of the Fall cameo and so on. My favourite was probably the TV interview with guest starring Sam Lake (Remedy's main scriptwriter and the visual stand in for Max in the first game) making fun of the constipated face Max Payne has in the entirety of the first game, that was hilarious.
 
I've finished Alan Wake and am currently playing Control. And man, the level of presentation is insane. The style is very slick, the gameplay is very smooth, already the opening credits gave off this vibe of a really high-end TV show, à la True Detective or something.

It's not just that, the combat is overall more well-rounded, with the switch between melee, shooting and telekinesis being a lot of fun, the "ontological mystery" of the narrative (i. e. you not knowing anything even about you character) kinda works more on me than Alan Wake's slow-burn trod through the same old same old (although like I said, the DLCs were several degrees better) and so on.

Though I'm still somewhat baffled. I mean, I have the same small problem I had previously, that is... the "X-filism" feels really weird, too dated to feel truly contemporary, too modern (and put in a too modern way) to give off true retro vibes, I just don't know how to classify it myself. Thematically, I should like Wake more (I've always been more of a Twin Peaks than X-Files bloke), but as for the execution, I just vibe with Control more.

I still wonder what's the point and I still wonder whether the attempts at being mainstream don't eliminate the horror potential of both titles - horror is always best when it's underground. Once you make it "something for the whole family", it feels somewhat bland (just look at the new film version of It - or, well, its ideological predecessor Stranger Things. Not that the book was ever all that scary, its strengths are mostly King's cocain-induced 50s childhood boomer nostalgia, but still...).

Anyway, I wonder, @Onhell what captivates you most in the Remedyverse? With Max Payne for me, it was the incredibly addictive gameplay, the likes of which I hadn't seen before (and honestly, only rarely have since) and the overall noir feel felt fresh in games and they seemed to capture it perfectly. But maybe that's just nostalgia talking - and the fact I miss the story beats and Max's florid ruminations.

434007484_820601296768520_30956002448690617_n.jpg

But yeah, mostly it's all the bullet time jumping.

I feel like the newer games concentrate more on the narrative experience and I'm not sure I'm liking that all that much. Though I'm really enjoying Control.

Also, I said fuck it and bought Baldur's Gate 3 anyway, for Xbox. You know what they say, you only live once, allegedly you don't have to fuck everything and the bear - unlike what the memes seem to imply - and at least I will be able to watch NeverKnowsBest's video on it, which is a treat in itself.
 
JudasMyGuide said:
Anyway, I wonder, @Onhell what captivates you most in the Remedyverse?
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The stories, I love the stories, the characters, how they choose to tell the stories, how ambitious they get with each subsequent game. While not a fan on how they continuously move the goal posts, the games are still very fun, immersive (at least for me), their world building is top-notch with mostly memorable characters. For example, Marshall and Emily Pope from Control are pretty unforgettable. Barry Wheeler is a scene stealer lol. So that's what does it for me.
 
I've recently found out that Blasphemous II was released on the Xbox One in November, I could've been playing it ages ago :facepalm:

But I'm playing it now, and it's pretty great. As expected it's not dramatically different from the previous game save from a few tweaks in the gameplay mechanics, mostly in the Penitent One's movement. One thing that is a little disappointing is how little variation there is in the Rosary Beads, they were much more useful in the first game but now they're all variations on resistance to elemental damage and losing less Guilt upon dying. I like the switchable weapons and that they have their uses in terms of travelling around the map, but I still find myself using the bog standard sword for most of the time.
 
I've decided I need something on PC as well, since I usually can't play on Xbox while the boys are awake, so after watching NeverKnowsBest's series on Elder Scrolls, I've installed Morrowind, after a really long time.

And man, the feelz.


It really brings you back (I always was a Morrowind bitch - I kinda missed Oblivion back when it came out, played it only a few times at most at my friend's and I played about 50 hours of Skyrim and while I liked it, it isn't the be-all, end-all for me ... and Daggerfall is way too dated nowadays, until I found Daggerfall Unity, which I installed as well and must try soon).
 
Edington said:
I've recently found out that Blasphemous II was released on the Xbox One in November, I could've been playing it ages ago :facepalm:

But I'm playing it now, and it's pretty great. As expected it's not dramatically different from the previous game save from a few tweaks in the gameplay mechanics, mostly in the Penitent One's movement. One thing that is a little disappointing is how little variation there is in the Rosary Beads, they were much more useful in the first game but now they're all variations on resistance to elemental damage and losing less Guilt upon dying. I like the switchable weapons and that they have their uses in terms of travelling around the map, but I still find myself using the bog standard sword for most of the time.
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I was super excited about it, then I saw the change in art direction and now I'm a little less enthused. I still bought it, it's sitting in my backlog. I'll get to it eventually. Kinda like with AW II, I want to make sure I have the time to just sit with it without having to worry about other crap.

JudasMyGuide said:
I've decided I need something on PC as well, since I usually can't play on Xbox while the boys are awake, so after watching NeverKnowsBest's series on Elder Scrolls, I've installed Morrowind, after a really long time.

And man, the feelz.


It really brings you back (I always was a Morrowind bitch - I kinda missed Oblivion back when it came out, played it only a few times at most at my friend's and I played about 50 hours of Skyrim and while I liked it, it isn't the be-all, end-all for me ... and Daggerfall is way too dated nowadays, until I found Daggerfall Unity, which I installed as well and must try soon).
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I've never played any Elder Scrolls, I did get Daggerfall from Steam and sure enough... super outdated, but I think I'll still give it another shot and I'll check out the "Unity" upgrade, thanks for sharing that. As for the others I'm not sure how to tackle them. Morrowind seems to be peak ES for a lot of people as it is the last one that doesn't hold your hand, for others it's Oblivion and for MILLIONS of people it's Skyrim. Once upon a time I thought about going in order, but now I just don't know, even just picking on which platform, PC? Xbox? Mods (Morrowind has a very active mod scene), no mods? I'll stick to Octopath Traveler for now.
 
Onhell said:
I was super excited about it, then I saw the change in art direction and now I'm a little less enthused.
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Do you mean the gameplay? When I first saw the trailer I was a bit disappointed too as I absolutely adore the original's style, but it doesn't feel dramatically different while playing. As for the cutscenes, there are so few of them that it made next to no difference for me.

One thing I do find lacking, and it might just be because it hasn't quite sunk in with me just yet, is the soundtrack. Again, I absolutely love the original and it seemed every area had a track that caught my ear immediately, but so far there's only one track in II that really caught my ear. Well, two, but I heard the second one in a review and haven't made it to that section yet.
 
Onhell said:
I've never played any Elder Scrolls, I did get Daggerfall from Steam and sure enough... super outdated, but I think I'll still give it another shot and I'll check out the "Unity" upgrade, thanks for sharing that. As for the others I'm not sure how to tackle them. Morrowind seems to be peak ES for a lot of people as it is the last one that doesn't hold your hand, for others it's Oblivion and for MILLIONS of people it's Skyrim. Once upon a time I thought about going in order, but now I just don't know, even just picking on which platform, PC? Xbox? Mods (Morrowind has a very active mod scene), no mods? I'll stick to Octopath Traveler for now.
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First, you don't need to play them in order, I certainly wouldn't recommend starting with anything pre-Morrowind, heh. You can always check those out later.

Now, I'm obviously biased and I kinda want to say go with Morrowind, for several reasons (yes,, less hand holding, unique and more original feel, it's a bit rougher on graphics, gameplay etc., so it's better to play it while you're not spoilt by the latter installments), but biases aside, I'd probably recommend starting with Oblivion. It stands between Morrowind and Skyrim and therefore makes it easier to continue with either of those. World-wise, Oblivion is "the one that came out after LOTR" (i. e. "standard Medieval-cozy"), Skyrim is "the one that came out after GOT" (i. e. "the North and the dragons!") and Morrowind is pretty much its own thing, rather alien and specific, if anything, it kinda gives off similar vibe as Roshar does (in Stormlight Archive, which I'm reading right now).

As for mods, if it's your first time, I'd recommend going through the most all-time popular and checking for just the basic ones - e. g. the mod patch for Skyrim etc., because there is a lot of crash fixes, quality of life updates, typo-erratas etc. - but I'd go only for those that otherwise keep the gameplay as close to vanilla as possible.

With that in mind, get Morrowind (GOTY edition, with the DLCs) definitely on PC, I'm not even sure how the original xBox backward compatibility works there BTW and I think you're going to need at least the mod tweak that enlarges the fonts, because on higher resolutions the texts are tiny and almost unreadable.

Oblivion I'd also go with PC, because when I checked it in Xbox store, it looked like you can't get the DLCs for it, whereas you get the GOTY edition normally on Steam.

As for Skyrim, it probably doesn't matter. I have it on both Xbox and PC and I'll probably be playing it on Xbox again once I get to it (it's easier on the eyes and everything) - the modding is very well implemented (at least on Xbox) and you won't be missing anything.
 
All things should be experienced on PC, the superior platform.

Daggerfall Unity was a shitton of fun, it's a pretty good update. I'd love to see a spiritual sequel for Daggerfall in the modern era of 16-bit recreations.
 
LooseCannon said:
All things should be experienced on PC, the superior platform.
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The only games I've ever enjoyed on PC with keyboard/mouse are sims (city, railroad, flight, etc) and RTSs. I'm not good enough at FPSs to see a noticeable difference in gameplay/enjoyment or any other game that I can play on console. It used to be the differences were huge. The EA sports games are a great example. NHL 94 on 16-bit consoles was good, but on PC it was incredible. Now though? They look the same, play the same, so eh. The same can be said for most games. So unless one is a hardcore gamer who dropped more on their PC than they did on their house it really isn't worth it for us "casuals."
 
I don't know - I was using PC since 90s, then somewhere in 2010s I moved to consoles. I would say that both are some strong points. Now I play on my PC when I want to do some shooters and on console when I want my forza :-) Or psychonauts - I can play on my PC but nothing beat playing good platformer on 56' tv while sitting in a comfortable, soft armchair. On the other hand - nothing beats playing Quake on nightmare on PC :-)
 
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